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what would indian's do without horns...

so what wakes you up in the morning time? for me, it is the orchestra of horns honking signalling the passing of cars or the frustration of drivers here in india. each morning a melody of horns starts - as early as 5:00 AM - when people are making there way to work or onto the busy streets of mumbai...so let me describe the different types of beeps - there is the short quick honk which means "i am here, so be careful" or "i am passing watch out" - there there is the long honks which means "lets move the light is green or move out you are holding me up" then there is the muliple honks which means "i am angry and going fast, get out of my way" - the horn, coupled with the hand sticking out of the window is the signal - you know where someone wants to go when they honk the horn and stick out there hand - even passengers are required to participate is the movement is on their side...it is interesting - here the honk does not necessarily mean annoyance or anger - in fact the back of trucks they ask that you honk your horn...gotta love it!

i don't think people really pay attention till you honk your horn at them...and people cross the street and even if a car is coming won't do anything, till the driver honks at them - like until that point in time they did not notice a large, quickly moving object, coming towards them. i don't know why they even have cross walks here - people rarely use them -

each traffic light is like the beginning of a nascar race - people vying to be the first one out to beat all the traffic to be quickly stopped again by a random car turning in the middle of the street or a cow in the way. people use all forms of transportation and all form of horns - it doesn't matter what you are riding/driving/using for transportation you have some form of audio signaling...that is it - here the horn is an audio signal - visual signals only mean so much...

so if i honk at you while i am driving, know that it is not out of malice or anger - but to simply tell you that i am around - to ensure that you know where i am, how close i am and not to hit me...i don't care if i am in the wrong or not, until you honk your horn and me, i will do as i please...i wonder if hey have people horns here - maybe that would work better when cutting through people traffic and trying to get someplace faster...i think we should start that - why should just cars have horns? what i really want to know is this - how did honking the horn become the way of india and nepal? who started this?

-till later

posted by ravi @ 12:09 AM